1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to locating devices, and more particularly to a key fob that uses music to locate a parked vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
The number of automobiles and related vehicles in use continues to grow. One result of this growth, particularly in urban areas, is the presence of large parking lots and parking garages. These large parking areas are commonly found around malls, sporting arenas, airports, and the like. With hundreds of cars in a given parking lot, many of them with a similar profile and color, it is easy for one to forget where they have parked, particularly after being away from their vehicle for several hours while shopping in a mall, watching a sporting event, or engaged in a similar distraction. A common approach to this problem is to walk up and is down aisles in a parking area in the hope of locating one's vehicle. This approach is time consuming, and oftentimes large vehicles such as vans, sport utility vehicles, and trucks block visibility as one walks the parking area. This can be frustrating, particularly if one is carrying packages or groceries, or if the weather is inclement.
There have been various attempts over the years to provide vehicle locators that aid in locating and identifying one's vehicle. One of the simplest vehicle locators is a tennis ball, ping pong ball, or similar sized ball mounted atop a car radio antenna. This is a purely visual indicator that has limited usefulness. Other similar vehicle locators such as flags, lights, and the like have also been available, and have limited usefulness and success.
With the advent of car remote controls that lock and unlock doors and also sound the horn, locating one's vehicle by remotely sounding the vehicle's horn has been a relatively common occurrence. Unfortunately, most if not all car remote controls have extremely limited range. In addition, activating a car horn remotely, particularly when using the horn as a locator which may require repeated horn activation, can be annoying to those around the parked car. The sound levels of a vehicular horn are such as to be not only annoying, but also can present a legitimate hazard to a person in close proximity to the activated horn. A remotely activated horn can startle and distract that person and place them in a potentially harmful situation.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a car locator that plays music at a vehicle to be located. It is another object of the present invention to provide a car locator that offers a selection of music to be used for vehicle location purposes. It is another object of the present invention to provide a car locator that controls the volume of music to be played at a vehicle to be located.
These and other objects of the present invention are not to be considered comprehensive or exhaustive, but rather, exemplary of objects that may be ascertained after reading this specification with the accompanying drawings and claims.